


Forgery

by ZombieJesus



Category: Death Note & Related Fandoms, Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet, Ficlet, Gen, L has no common sense, Lies, Light has no clue, M/M, Metaphors, Yotsuba Arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-18 14:20:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18122084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZombieJesus/pseuds/ZombieJesus
Summary: Light wakes up to find that L's slipped out their bedroom window, watching the rain and lost in his thoughts about...cake?





	Forgery

It was the middle of the night when Light felt a tug of the handcuff chain, jerking him from troubled dreams and back to his more troubled reality. The room was cold, and he could hear the droning of hard rain outside, the muffled swish of city traffic far below their tower. “Ryuzaki?” Light lifted his head from the pillow, looking around the room but not seeing L right away. He knew the detective rarely slept, would type long into the night or just sit beside him, fingers hovering above keys in thought. But not tonight.

 

His gaze followed the long handcuff chain to the open window where it kinked on the edge, trailing to the narrow ledge outside their room. The sounds of the storm grew louder as Light gravitated towards the window that had always been locked until this night, and he frowned as he stepped in the puddle accumulating on the floor as rain was occasionally blown inside. “Ryuzaki?!” A gust of wind chilled him but he went to look out the window anyway, clutching his arms and warming them as he peered around the ledge. “What in the hell are you doing out here? It’s dangerous!” L was sitting just outside the window, perched like a gargoyle over the city beneath them. He was soaked and shivering slightly, but seemed relaxed, peaceful to Light.

 

“Thinking.” L turned his wide grey eyes to Light for a moment, taking in the displeasure on his face. He placed his hands on his knees, gazing out over the neon city again.

 

Light looked down just for a moment, long enough to feel slightly dizzy from the height. “Come back in here, you’ll fall!”

 

“Is Light-kun worried I’ll topple off and drag him down too?” L leaned back against the wall, scooting his toes to the edge and curling them around it. “I assure you I won’t.” Quieter, “Not yet anyway.”

 

Light frowned at L’s tone, squinting as some rain blew into his face. “What do you mean ‘not yet?’”

 

“Kira may be the end of me, but not tonight.” L patted the soggy concrete beside him and indicated for Light to join him. When Light gave him a dubious look, L smiled cryptically. “Are you afraid?”

 

“No…” It was partially true, Light was not afraid of heights. But it had only been a week since he’d been let out of his cell and his trust in the detective was badly frayed. Most days it seemed that his freedom (such as it was) was paid for with his father’s sanity, exchanged for his own peace of mind that he’d ever get out of this trap. L had shown him that he’d do anything to prove Light was Kira, and stepping onto a ledge with someone like that was unwise to say the least. _So why am I doing it?_ He sighed and carefully climbed out the window, gripping the sill tightly until he had sat down beside L. “Happy? Now will you come back inside?” Light leaned back against the wall, wishing now he’d worn warmer pajamas tonight.

 

L ignored him, pointing to a small shop below them on the street in front of the skyscraper. “Look. A new pastry shop opened up yesterday.” The storefront had blinking neon signs of cupcakes and pies in the windows, but the interior was dark since it was late at night.

 

Light focused through the sheets of rain, shaking his head and unable to hold back a snort of laughter. “Is this why you refuse to fall off the ledge? Got to live long enough to see if those new pastries are any good?”

 

“It’s as good a reason as any. I do hope that Kira will hold off killing me long enough to find out.” His voice was deadpan as usual, dry and emotionless.

 

“I’m not--” Light closed his eyes in frustration, the protest dying in his mouth. _Too much to hope to have just one friendly conversation._ “I’m going back inside. You should too.” He made a move towards the window but stopped when he felt a bony hand on his leg, looking at L in surprise.

 

“A moment more. Please.” L’s wet hair hung in his face, dripping like dirty icicles thawing at last.

 

Light sat back down, staring at the hand on his knee that was slowly retracted. He listened to the rain for a few minutes as they sat in silence, until he broke it. “Have you always loved sugar so much?”

 

L shrugged, supposing he had since he couldn’t recall the start of it. “People cope with stress in different ways. It seemed the lesser of many evils.”

 

Light brushed his fingers over a small crack in the concrete. “But that’s not how L usually looks at the world, is it? Choosing the lesser of evils. Even the lesser evil may destroy, given enough time and opportunity.”

 

L looked at him sharply, nibbling a finger. _Ah, that is something he would say. Does Kira believe himself the lesser evil?_ “Then I will have nothing but my own weakness to blame if it happens. But it makes me happy, and I have little enough of that as it is.”

 

Nails dug into the crack, probing deeper. “Doesn’t solving cases, being L make you happy? The whole world reveres L, respects and admires him.” Light blushed slightly, turning his face to the clouds, because despite his anger towards L, he still admired him greatly. “That would be like a dream to me. Being able to change the world for good, solve crimes no one else could do. Like a superhero.” He laughed at the naive folly of it, seeing what L had done, what he really cared for now. _Winning_. “I used to want to be you.”

 

“Used to?” _You could have been, in another life._

 

“Well, if you say it doesn’t make you happy, that’s not exactly a glowing endorsement is it? And I’d….I’d do things differently if I were L.”

 

L gave a rare laugh at that. “Yes, I imagine you would.” _Maybe you would have been a better L, if my power and not Kira’s had been yours._

 

Light could sense something sad under the irony and even though he was L’s captive, it made him uneasy. “Well, we can go to that shop tomorrow if you want to.” _Take what makes you happy, if that’s all that can._

 

“No, we can’t be seen in the handcuffs, you know that.”

 

“No, I suppose not.” Light closed his eyes, wondering what it would take for these cuffs to ever come off. _Nothing could satisfy you until you prove me Kira, and then you’ll put a rope around my neck in its place._ ”What would you order if you could have anything?”

 

Without hesitation, and slightly dreamy. “Cake. Strawberry. With loads of buttery icing.”

 

It sounded just like what L had every day. “Don’t you get plenty of that here? Watari bakes it all the time for you.”

 

“But this would be new cake. Watari tries to make his cakes healthier and thinks I don’t notice.” L made a face, thinking of margarine and wheat flour and other sneaky substitutes Watari made with his health in mind.

 

“But you do.”

 

“Of course.”

 

Light giggled with the sorts of troubles that weighed so heavy on L’s mind. “I see. So if you asked him to go get one from the shop, he’d probably replace it with a healthier cake.”

 

Grumbling, “Probably.”

 

It all sounded very sensible to Light, given how inconvenient it would be if L died of diabetes or a natural heart attack that could have been prevented. “Does Ryuzaki always want what’s bad for him?”

 

“Not always.” He sighed, “Although it has been occurring more frequently lately.” _And with far more potentially lethal consequences._

 

Light gave him a conspiratorial smile. “I bet I could get you that cake—unadulterated.” _Would it make you happy if I did? Would you smile for me? A real one, without your doubts and accusations?_

 

L tilted his head, pressing a finger to his bottom lip. “Has Kira resorted to catering in an attempt to free himself? I’m afraid it won’t work despite my weakness for sugar. Plus he may poison it.”

 

Light’s own smile fell immediately, washing to the gutters below and drowning in the rain with the moment. Colder now, “Not quite his style is it? Poison is a coward’s tool.”

 

“And Light-kun does not believe Kira to be a coward then…” _Then why do you hide from me?_

 

“He is many things, but no. He’s not that.”

 

“I agree.” _The same reason I hide. He doesn’t want to die._

 

Light gave him an odd look, perplexed. “You know sometimes I can’t decide if you admire him or want him dead.”

 

“Both. And neither.” _Which is it?_ He searched Light’s face, his eyes, a critic tasked with detecting the forgery and exposing it, yet finding beauty in the facsimile. “Depends.” _Not a forgery, but painted over to hide what lies beneath. An unsettling scene but true, now covered in brushstroked innocence to enhance the appeal._

 

The rain had nearly stopped now, just drizzling in afterthought. “On what?”

 

L looked down at his wriggling toes, alive like something apart from himself. _And which do I prefer..._ “I think I’m ready to go back inside.” He motioned for Light to go in, and followed him through the window when he did.

 

Light closed the window and stood there shivering as L unlocked their handcuffs momentarily for them to change into dry clothes. He pulled them on, holding his wrist back out for the familiar snap of metal. Heading under the covers for warmth, he was slightly surprised when L joined him. _Have you had enough of the cold as well?_ “What did you go out there to think about anyway? You never said.”

 

L hesitated, looking as if he’d just turn over and ignore the question. But he spoke, a little smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Whether a fake cake will ever make me happy.”

 

Light looked back at him from his pillow. _We aren’t talking about cakes, are we?_ “And what did you decide?”

 

L did turn over then, gathering the blanket around him until only his spiked hair stuck out. “It won’t.”

  


**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the 2018 Winter Secret Shinigami Exchange


End file.
